Systems and methods for bulk redaction of recorded data

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for redacting information from data records are provided. Data records are recorded by recording devices, including, but not limited to, camera recording devices such as those associated with law-enforcement officers. The data records are stored in an evidence management system. In response to requests for records, including but not limited to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the evidence management system creates redacted versions of the data records. Public access may then be provided to the redacted data records. In some embodiments, automated bulk redaction may be applied to video data records by applying a video filter to the entire visual field of the video information. In some embodiments, access to the redacted data records may be provided via a cloud storage system or via a removable computer-readable storage medium.

BACKGROUND

It is becoming increasingly popular to record video during lawenforcement activities, such as by using wearable cameras, in-car dashcameras, and/or the like. Even though large amounts of video may becollected using these techniques, the videos are often subject todisclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or similar lawsor policies. To comply with such laws while maintaining the privacy ofdepicted individuals, sensitive information is commonly redacted fromthe videos before disclosure.

Public agencies are becoming inundated with FOIA requests once videocapture is rolled out. Using existing tools, it often takes severalhours to redact a few minutes of video, as video data must be reviewedand redacted for minors, undercover officers, innocent bystanders, andother sensitive information. Furthermore, audio data also must beredacted for names, addresses, and any other sensitive information. Ithas become such a huge burden that some public agencies have publiclystated that they are considering ending video capture projects as theycannot support the requests. What is needed are methods and systems thathelp reduce the amount of time needed to redact videos in response topublic records requests.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features ofthe claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In some embodiments, a system for processing digital video data isprovided. The system comprises at least one digital video camera and atleast one computing device configured to provide an evidence managementsystem. The evidence management system is configured to receive one ormore digital video files from the at least one digital video camera;store the digital video files in a storage location protected frompublic access; redact information from the digital video files to createredacted digital video files; and store the redacted digital video filesin a storage location available to public access. Redacting informationfrom the digital video files includes applying a blur filter to anentirety of visual content of the digital video files.

In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for automaticallyredacting records captured by recording devices is provided. A computingdevice receives a command to redact a data record, wherein the datarecord includes a digital video file. The computing device applies ablur filter to an entire visual field of the digital video file tocreate a redacted data record. The computing device stores the redacteddata record in a staging location, and access to redacted data recordsis provided.

In some embodiments, a computing device configured to automaticallyredact records captured by recording devices is provided. The computingdevice is configured to receive a command to redact a data recordcaptured by a recording device; apply a blur filter to the data recordto create a redacted data record; store the redacted data record in astaging location; and provide access to redacted data records.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thisinvention will become more readily appreciated as the same become betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description, whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a high-level schematic diagram that illustrates communicationbetween various components of an exemplary embodiment of a systemaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary embodiment of adata recording device according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary embodiment of anevidence management system according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 4A-4B are a flowchart that illustrates an exemplary embodiment ofa method of bulk redaction of sensitive information from recorded dataaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary web interface for generating disclosurerequests according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are illustrations of a detailed redaction according tovarious aspects of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C are illustrations of a bulk redaction techniqueaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram that illustrates aspects of an exemplarycomputing device appropriate for use as a computing device of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a high-level schematic diagram that illustrates communicationbetween various components of an exemplary embodiment of a systemaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the system 100 is configured to allow for collection ofdata records from various recording devices within the system 100, aswell as redaction and production of the data records in response toinformation requests.

In general, a user 92, such as a law enforcement officer, may beassociated with one or more recording devices. The devices may include,but are not limited to, a video recording device such as a camera 106, aweapon 108, and various devices associated with a vehicle 94 such as alight bar device 110. The video recording device 106 may be, forexample, a wearable camera that records video and/or audio data whenactivated. The weapon 108 may be, for example, a conducted energy weapon(CEW) that stores data records regarding events such as firing events,cartridge loading, holster removal, and/or the like. The light bardevice 110 may detect changes in state such as activation of the lightbar on the vehicle 94, which is usually associated with an emergencysituation, and store data records regarding the changes in state. Otherrecording devices, such as a dashboard camera, a heart rate sensordevice, a holster sensor device, and/or the like, may also be includedin the system 100 but are not illustrated in FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, the recording devices transmit data records to theevidence management system 102 using any suitable technique. In someembodiments, at least some of the recording devices may have long rangewireless communication abilities, and may transmit data records to theevidence management system 102 using one or more of a WiFi network; amobile data network such as LTE, 4G, or 3G; and/or the like. In someembodiments, at least some recording devices may perform a directlong-range transmission or reception of information, such as to anevidence management system 102, when physically connected to an evidencecollection dock 104 that communicates with the evidence managementsystem 102 via a broadband network 90 such as a LAN, a WAN, and/or theInternet. In some embodiments, a personal assistant computing device 107is provided. The personal assistant computing device 107 is illustratedas a smartphone computing device, but in some embodiments may be alaptop computing device, a tablet computing device, or any othersuitable computing device capable of being carried by the user 92 or avehicle 94 associated with the user 92 and capable of performing theactions described herein. The personal assistant computing device 107may be capable of short-range communication with the other recordingdevices in the system 100, and may also be capable of long rangecommunication with the evidence management system 102, a dispatchsystem, or any other system to relay data records from the recordingdevices to the evidence management system 102. Further aspects of thesedevices and their capabilities will be discussed below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary embodiment of adata recording device according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the video recording device 106 is awearable camera that provides a point of view associated with the user92. In some embodiments, the video recording device 106 may be attachedto another device carried by the user 92, such as a weapon. In someembodiments, the video recording device 106 may be mounted away from theuser 92, such as an in-car camera or a security camera.

As with any camera, the video recording device 106 includes at least avideo sensor 202, and may also include an audio sensor 206. Datacollected by the video sensor 202 and the audio sensor 206 may be storedin a video data store 222 and an audio data store 224, respectively,though in some embodiments the audio and video information is storedtogether in a single data store and/or in a combined data file. Oneexample of an appropriate video sensor is a charge-coupled device (CCD),though any other digital image sensor, such as a complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor, an active pixel sensor, or anyother type of digital image sensor could be used instead. Any type ofmicrophone may be used as an audio sensor 206.

As understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, a “data store” asdescribed herein may be any suitable device configured to store data foraccess by a computing device. One example of a data store suitable foruse with the high capacity needs of the evidence management system 102is a highly reliable, high-speed relational database management system(RDBMS) executing on one or more computing devices and accessible over ahigh-speed network. However, any other suitable storage technique and/ordevice capable of quickly and reliably providing the stored data inresponse to queries may be used, such as a key-value store, an objectdatabase, and/or the like. Further, for the evidence management system102, the computing device providing the data store may be accessiblelocally instead of over a network, or may be provided as a cloud-basedservice. Suitable cloud-based services may be provided as part of theevidence management system 102, or may be provided by a third partycloud storage provider. Some example cloud storage systems include butare not limited to Google Drive, Dropbox, CloudMe, Amazon Cloud Drive,Amazon S3, Microsoft OneDrive, and/or the like.

A data store may also include data stored in an organized manner on acomputer-readable storage medium, as described further below. Oneexample of a data store suitable for use with the needs of the videorecording device 106, which includes reliable storage but also lowoverhead, is a file system or database management system that storesdata in files (or records) on a computer-readable medium such as flashmemory, random access memory (RAM), hard disk drives, and/or the like.One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that separate datastores described herein may be combined into a single data store, and/ora single data store described herein may be separated into multiple datastores, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

The video recording device 106 also includes a camera control engine204. In general, the term “engine” as used herein refers to logicembodied in hardware or software instructions, which can be written in aprogramming language, such as C, C++, COBOL, JAVA™, PHP, Perl, HTML,CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, ASPX, Microsoft .NET™ languages such as C#,and/or the like. An engine may be compiled into executable programs orwritten in interpreted programming languages. Engines may be callablefrom other engines or from themselves. Generally, the engines describedherein refer to modules that can be merged with other engines to form asingle engine, or can be divided into multiple sub-engines. The enginesmay be embodied in any type of circuit such as an FPGA or an ASIC;and/or may be stored in any type of computer-readable medium or computerstorage device and be stored on and executed by one or more generalpurpose computers, thus creating a special purpose computer configuredto provide the engine. Accordingly, the devices and systems illustratedherein include one or more computing devices configured to provide theillustrated engines, though the computing devices themselves have notbeen illustrated in every case for the sake of clarity.

The camera control engine 204 is configured to change settings of thevideo recording device 106 and thereby cause the video recording device106 to perform camera functions. For example, the camera control engine204 may cause the video sensor 202 and audio sensor 206 to beginobtaining data, and may cause the video and/or audio data to be saved ina video data store 222 and/or audio data store 224 after receiving itfrom the sensor. The camera control engine 204 may receive commands tostart, pause, or stop the video recording from a physical user interfacedevice of the video recording device 106, or may automatically start,pause, or stop the video recording in response to an instructionreceived from, for example, a short-range wireless interface. The cameracontrol engine 204 may also change settings on the video sensor 202and/or audio sensor 206 in response to such instructions, such as animage quality, a white balance setting, a gain, and/or any other videoor audio recording setting. Starting video recording may includetransitioning from a pre-trigger mode, wherein video data and/or audiodata is saved in a pre-trigger buffer such as a ring buffer, to apost-trigger mode wherein video data and/or audio data is saved in thevideo data store 222 and/or the audio data store 224. Likewise, stoppingvideo recording may include transitioning from the post-trigger mode tothe pre-trigger mode.

The video recording device 106 may also include a number of generalcomponents, including a motion sensor 238, a physical dock interface232, and a battery sensor 234. The motion sensor 238, such as amulti-axis accelerometer, produces motion information reflecting motionof the video recording device 106. The battery sensor 234 may generateinformation regarding a state of a battery of the video recording device106. For example, the battery sensor 234 may detect a low battery state,a battery overheating state, and/or the like. Other well-known internaldevice systems, such as a file system controller, a free-fall sensor,and/or the like, may similarly provide alerts to the notificationgeneration engine 204, but are not illustrated here. In someembodiments, the camera control engine 204 may embed information fromthe general components, sensor configuration information, or otherinformation about the state of the video recording device 106 in thedata or metadata stored in the video data store 222 and/or audio datastore 224. In some embodiments, the camera control engine 204 may storeinformation regarding the state of the video recording device 106 inanother data store that is not illustrated.

The physical dock interface 232 is configured to mate with a physicalconnector on the evidence collection dock 104. In some embodiments, thephysical dock interface 232 may include a female 2.5 mm socket, whichmates with a male 2.5 mm plug of the evidence collection dock 104. Oncedocked, the video recording device 106 may then transfer data to theevidence management system 102 via the connection using any suitabledata transmission protocol. In some embodiments, power may betransferred to the video recording device 106 via the physical dockinterface 232 instead of or in addition to the data transfer. In someembodiments, other connection hardware that can provide both power anddata connectivity may be used, such as a USB connector, a USB Type-Cconnector, a Firewire connector, and/or the like. Though notillustrated, the video recording device 102 may also include ashort-range wireless interface. The short-range wireless interface maybe configured to use any suitable wireless networking technology capableof wirelessly exchanging data with other devices within range of thevideo recording device 102, including but not limited to Bluetooth(including Bluetooth Low Energy), ZigBee, NFC, and/or the like.

FIG. 2 illustrates a video recording device 106, but one of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that other types of recording deviceswill have similar components. For example, an audio-only recordingdevice may be very similar to the video recording device 106, but willsimply lack the video-related components. As another non-limitingexample, a heart rate monitor recording device would have a heart ratesensor and a heart rate record data store instead of audio or videocomponents, but would otherwise have similar components for interactingwith the system 100.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary embodiment of anevidence management system according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the evidence management system 102comprises a plurality of computing devices configured to provide theillustrated components, though they are described as a single system forclarity. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that anysuitable server system, such as a single server, a server farm, a cloudservice, and/or the like, may be used to provide the functionality ofthe evidence management system 102.

As illustrated, the evidence management system 102 includes a redactionengine 306, a production engine 308, and a network interface 322. Theredaction engine 306 is configured to process data records and remove orotherwise obfuscate sensitive information. The production engine 308 isconfigured to receive requests for data records, and to provide accessto the requested data records after they have been processed by theredaction engine 306. Further description of these processes is providedbelow.

The evidence management system 102 also includes a redacted data store310, a video data store 312, an audio data store 314, and an audit traildata store 316. The video data store 312 and audio data store 314 areconfigured to store data captured by one or more video recording devices106 or other devices that can capture audio and/or video data and areenrolled with the system 100. In some embodiments, the video data store312 and audio data store 314 are merged into a single data store, andaudio and video data that are recorded contemporaneously may be storedtogether in a single file. The audit trail data store 316 stores recordsof auditable events detected by devices of the system 100, such as othertypes of device status information captured by recording devices. Insome embodiments, other data stores for other types of data records,such as a heart rate data store for heart rate data records, a locationdata store for location data records, and/or other types of data storesand data records, may also be included.

In some embodiments, the redacted data store 310 provides a staginglocation for data records that are either about to be redacted or thathave been redacted but have not yet been produced. While illustrated aspart of the evidence management system 102, in some embodiments theredacted data store 310 may be external from the evidence managementsystem 102 and accessible via a network, such as a cloud storage systemand/or the like.

The evidence management system 102 also includes a data gathering engine318 and a user interface engine 320. The data gathering engine 318 isconfigured to receive video data, audio data, and/or other informationfrom devices via the evidence collection dock 104 and the coordinatorcomputing device 107. The user interface engine 320 is configured togenerate and present user interfaces for displaying and interacting withthe data collected by the evidence management system 102 via web pages,application programming interfaces, or any other suitable technology.Each of the interfaces and engines of the evidence management system 102is configured to use a network interface 322 for communication withother components of the system 100 via the Internet. Further descriptionof the actions taken by the components of the evidence management system102 is provided below.

FIGS. 4A-4B are a flowchart that illustrates an exemplary embodiment ofa method of bulk redaction of sensitive information from recorded dataaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure. From a startblock, the method 400 proceeds to block 402, where a data record iscreated by a recording device. The data record includes informationgathered by a sensor of the recording device. For example, if therecording device is a video recording device 106, the data recordincludes video and/or audio information, and is stored in the video datastore 222 and/or audio date store 224 of the video recording device 106.As another example, for a location monitoring device, the data recordincludes location information, which would be stored in a data store ofthe location monitoring device.

The method 400 then proceeds to optional block 404, where the recordingdevice stores one or more marks associated with the data recordindicating portions of the data record that include sensitiveinformation. Such marks may be useful if not all data records collectedby the recording device are assumed to include sensitive information, asthey can be used to mark sensitive record data contemporaneously withthe creation of the data records in order to avoid the need forsubsequent manual review and marking. In some embodiments, the marks maybe generated by actuating an interface device such as a button, switch,touchpad, and/or the like on the recording device. In some embodiments,the marks may be generated automatically by the recording device usingvoice recognition, face recognition, motion information, gunshotdetection information, vehicle sensor information, license platedetection information, text detection information, and/or any othersuitable technique. In some embodiments, the marks themselves may bestored in the data records themselves, and/or may be stored in metadataof a video data record stored in the video data store 222. In someembodiments, a separate data store may be present on the recordingdevice to store the marks. In some embodiments, the marks indicate aportion in a visual field of video data in which sensitive informationexists. In some embodiments, the marks may not indicate a portion in thevisual field of the video data in which sensitive information exists,but instead indicate time periods during which sensitive information ispresent in the data record. Block 404 is illustrated as optional becausesome embodiments may not use such marks, and may instead just assumethat all record data includes sensitive information.

At block 406, the recording device transmits the data record to anevidence management system 102. As discussed above, the data record maybe transmitted from the recording device to the evidence managementsystem 102 through an evidence collection dock 104, directly from therecording device to the evidence management system 102 through awireless network connection such as WiFi, 3G, 4G, LTE, Bluetooth, and/orthe like, or by any other suitable technique. At block 408, a datagathering engine 318 of the evidence management system 102 stores thedata record in a record data store. As illustrated, information fromvideo data records may be stored in the video data store 312 and/oraudio data store 314, information about recording device status may bestored in an audit trail data store 316, and so on for other types ofdata records. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that insome embodiments, the above steps of creating data records, storingmarks, transmitting the data records, and storing the data records in arecord data store may be repeated for a given recording device, or formultiple recording devices.

At block 410, a production engine 308 of the evidence management system102 receives a request for disclosure, and at block 412, the productionengine 308 determines one or more stored data records that match thedisclosure request. A typical request may be related to a Freedom ofInformation Act (FOIA) request or other public records request. Therequest may be in a standard form, which may be submitted directly tothe production engine 308 via an application programming interface(API). In some embodiments, a request for disclosure based on the FOIArequest (or other public records request) may be generated or otherwiseentered through a web interface presented by the user interface engine320 of the evidence management system 102.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary web interface for generating disclosurerequests according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Asshown, the web interface 500 includes a search parameter pane 502 thatallows a user to specify various parameters to query from the datastores in the evidence management system 102. Such parameters mayinclude any suitable criteria, including, but not limited, to being on agiven date or within a given date range; being associated with anincident identifier; being associated with a particular recordingdevice; being associated with a particular user; being associated with aparticular location; keywords present in a title, description, ortextual transcript; and/or any other suitable criteria. Results thatmatch the parameters specified in the search parameter pane 502 are thendisplayed in a result list 504.

Returning to FIG. 4A, the method 400 then proceeds to a continuationterminal (“terminal A”). From terminal A (FIG. 4B), the method 400proceeds to a for loop defined between a for loop start block 414 and afor loop end block 424, wherein each of the data records matching thedisclosure request is processed by a redaction engine to removesensitive information, where appropriate. From the for loop start block414, the method 400 proceeds to a decision block 416, where adetermination is made regarding whether the data record being processedshould be redacted. The determination could be based on any suitablecriteria. For example, the determination could be based on whether thedata record is marked as discussed above with respect to optional block404. As another example, the determination could be based on a selectionin an interface used to request the data records, such as the individualitem checkboxes in the list 504 or the audio redaction checkbox 506illustrated in FIG. 5. As another example, the determination could bebased on a system default configuration based on the type of informationin the data record (e.g., video data records get redacted; heart ratedata records do not get redacted; location information data records getredacted only if they are during off-time, and so on).

If the determination indicates that the data record should be redacted,then the result of decision block 416 is YES, and the method 400proceeds to procedure block 418, where a redaction engine 306 of theevidence management system 102 processes the data record to redactinformation and create a redacted record.

Any suitable procedure may be used in procedure block 418. For example,in some embodiments, a detailed redaction of video data may beperformed. FIGS. 6A and 6B are illustrations of a detailed redactionaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 6A shows arepresentative still from a video scene. In the scene a face of a driverand a license plate are visible. In this scene, the driver's identityand the license plate number may be considered sensitive information.FIG. 6B shows the representative still of the video scene after adetailed redaction has taken place. Solid color boxes have been placedover the sensitive information, such that it is no longer visible.

The detailed redaction may be conducted through an interface provided bythe user interface engine 320. The interface may provide a user theability to watch the video and apply the color blocks or other vectormask to the video information, and to mute audio (or apply a coveringbeep) to hide any sensitive audio information. The interface may alsoinclude other tools to simplify the redaction process, includingauto-generating thumbnails of the videos to speed navigation, a scrubbar to skip through the video, a timeline that displays markings asdiscussed above, a waveform display of the audio, and/or othertechniques. In some embodiments, the redaction engine 306 may applycolor blocks or redaction portions of the audio automatically, usingtechniques such as speech-to-text (to find sensitive audio), facialrecognition (to find faces to be redacted), license plate detection (tofind license plates to be redacted), optical character recognition (OCR)(to find text to be redacted), and/or the like.

As another example, FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C are illustrations of a bulkredaction technique according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. Bulk redaction allows a large number of data records to beprocessed without having to individually analyze each data record orother manual user intervention. FIG. 7A again shows a representativestill from a video scene. As before, the video scene includes a face ofan individual and a license plate number, both of which would beconsidered sensitive information. FIG. 7B shows, with diagonal lines, anarea of the video image to which a redaction filter is applied. In otherwords, an entire visible area of the video image is altered with a videofilter in order to obfuscate the information therein. While thisover-inclusive processing does obfuscate information that is notsensitive, such as the color and make of the car, any backgrounddetails, and/or the like, it guarantees that any visible sensitiveinformation will be obfuscated no matter the position at which it islocated within the video frame.

In some embodiments, the filter used for redaction may be a video filtersuch as a blur filter. FIG. 7C shows the representative still with ablur filter applied to the entire visible area. In some embodiments, ablur filter is selected because it can be configured to remove enoughdetail so that sensitive information such as faces, writing, etc., arenot presented in an identifiable format, but also to leave enoughinformation so that the general idea of what is happening can bedetermined. Such a filter also allows the filter to be applied to entirevisible area, thus ensuring that any included sensitive informationwithin the visible area is not legible. In some embodiments, otherfilters that achieve similar results, such as a Gaussian blur filter, apixelization filter, or other detail-reducing filters may be used.

Using such a filter allows for the automated redaction of video data,and saves significant processing time when producing large numbers ofrequested data records. Further, such a technique should be acceptableto the requester: if the subject of the video image in FIG. 7C left thecar and was detained by a law enforcement officer, the rough idea ofthis interaction would be communicated even through the redactionfilter, and if the requester therefore wanted further details about theinteraction, a less-redacted video (such as a manually redacted video)could be requested. Meanwhile, if the subject did not exit the car andno significant interactions took place, the requester may be able totell that nothing of interest happened during the video and would notrequest a less-redacted video.

In some embodiments, audio information included in the video may beaffected by bulk redaction as well. In some embodiments, all audioinformation may be removed during bulk redaction. The blurred videoinformation should provide enough to allow a requestor to determinewhether the audio information would be helpful and should be requestedin a less-redacted record. In some embodiments, a waveform or soundlevel indicator may be superimposed on the video even after the audioinformation is removed to give some idea of the level of sound in thevideo. Whether or not the audio information is removed during bulkredaction may be based on a general user configuration or a selectionsuch as checkbox 506 in the web interface 500.

Returning to FIG. 4B, after the data record has been redacted atprocedure block 418, the method 400 proceeds to block 420, where theredaction engine 306 copies the redacted record to a staging location.In some embodiments, the staging location may be local to the evidencemanagement system 102, such as the redacted data store 310. In someembodiments, the staging location may be a location in a cloud storageservice or other server that is protected by credentials that are notdistributed to users outside of the evidence management system 102. Themethod 400 then proceeds to a continuation terminal (“terminal B”).

Returning to decision block 416, if the determination indicates that thedata record should not be redacted, then the result of decision block416 is NO, and the method proceeds to block 422, where the redactionengine 306 copies the original data record to the staging location. Insome embodiments, the original data record may be copied to the samestaging location as the redacted records, because it has been determinedthat no redaction is needed from this particular original data recordbefore becoming public. The method 400 then proceeds to a continuationterminal (“terminal B”). From terminal B, the method 400 proceeds to thefor loop end block 424. If further matching data records exist, then themethod 400 returns to the for loop start block 414 to process the nextmatching data record. Otherwise, if all matching data records have beenprocessed, the method 400 advances to procedure block 426, where aproduction engine 308 of the evidence management system 102 providesaccess to records in the staging location in response to the request fordisclosure. The method 400 then proceeds to an end block and terminates.

Any suitable procedure may be used in procedure block 426 to provideaccess to the data records in the staging location. As one non-limitingexample, the production engine 308 may copy the data records from thestaging location to a server location accessible by users outside of theevidence management system 102. The production engine 308 may thengenerate and/or provide a link to that server location to the requester.The server location may be on a file server, an FTP server, a cloudstorage system, or any other suitable server. In some embodiments, theserver location may require authentication for access, such as by usinga username and/or password, shared authentication (such as OAuth,OpenID, Facebook Connect, and/or the like), and/or any other suitableauthentication technique, such that the location is not accessible tothe public as a whole, but may nevertheless be accessed by the requesterwhen not affiliated with the evidence management system. In someembodiments, the production engine 308 may compress and/or combine datarecords before copying them to the server location using any suitableformat or technique. Some example formats and/or techniques for file anddata combination and compression include ZIP format, tar format, CABformat, Apple Disk Image format, MPEG compression, JPEG compression,FLAC compression, and the like. One of ordinary skill in the art iscapable of selecting and applying one or more of these techniques orothers to process the data records before copying them to the serverlocation.

As another non-limiting example, the production engine 308 may copy thedata records to a removable computer-readable medium to be delivered tothe requester. For example, the production engine 308 may cause the datarecords to be stored on an optical storage medium such as a CD-ROM,DVD-ROM, and/or the like. Accordingly, the production engine 308 maycombine data records in the staging location to create an optical diskimage such as an ISO image and/or the like. The production engine 308may then cause a disk burning system or device to write the optical diskimage to an appropriate optical disk for delivery to the requester. Insome embodiments, the production engine may combine and/or compress thedata records as discussed above before the compressed/combined files areadded to the optical disk image.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram that illustrates aspects of an exemplarycomputing device appropriate for use as a computing device of thepresent disclosure. While multiple different types of computing deviceswere discussed above, the exemplary computing device 800 describesvarious elements that are common to many different types of computingdevices. While FIG. 8 is described with reference to a computing devicethat is implemented as a device on a network, the description below isapplicable to servers, personal computers, mobile phones, smart phones,tablet computers, embedded computing devices, and other devices that maybe used to implement portions of embodiments of the present disclosure.Moreover, those of ordinary skill in the art and others will recognizethat the computing device 800 may be any one of any number of currentlyavailable or yet to be developed devices.

In its most basic configuration, the computing device 800 includes atleast one processor 802 and a system memory 804 connected by acommunication bus 806. Depending on the exact configuration and type ofdevice, the system memory 804 may be volatile or nonvolatile memory,such as read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), EEPROM,flash memory, or similar memory technology. Those of ordinary skill inthe art and others will recognize that system memory 804 typicallystores data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible toand/or currently being operated on by the processor 802. In this regard,the processor 802 may serve as a computational center of the computingdevice 800 by supporting the execution of instructions.

As further illustrated in FIG. 8, the computing device 800 may include anetwork interface 810 comprising one or more components forcommunicating with other devices over a network. Embodiments of thepresent disclosure may access basic services that utilize the networkinterface 810 to perform communications using common network protocols.The network interface 810 may also include a wireless network interfaceconfigured to communicate via one or more wireless communicationprotocols, such as WiFi, 2G, 3G, LTE, WiMAX, Bluetooth, and/or the like.As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the networkinterface 810 illustrated in FIG. 8 may represent one or more wirelessinterfaces or physical communication interfaces described andillustrated above with respect to particular components of the system80.

In the exemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 8, the computing device 800also includes a storage medium 808. However, services may be accessedusing a computing device that does not include means for persisting datato a local storage medium. Therefore, the storage medium 808 depicted inFIG. 8 is represented with a dashed line to indicate that the storagemedium 808 is optional. In any event, the storage medium 808 may bevolatile or nonvolatile, removable or nonremovable, implemented usingany technology capable of storing information such as, but not limitedto, a hard drive, solid state drive, CD ROM, DVD, or other disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, and/or thelike.

As used herein, the term “computer-readable medium” includes volatileand non-volatile and removable and non-removable media implemented inany method or technology capable of storing information, such ascomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data. In this regard, the system memory 804 and storage medium 808depicted in FIG. 8 are merely examples of computer-readable media.

Suitable implementations of computing devices that include a processor802, system memory 804, communication bus 806, storage medium 808, andnetwork interface 810 are known and commercially available. For ease ofillustration and because it is not important for an understanding of theclaimed subject matter, FIG. 8 does not show some of the typicalcomponents of many computing devices. In this regard, the computingdevice 800 may include input devices, such as a keyboard, keypad, mouse,microphone, touch input device, touch screen, tablet, and/or the like.Such input devices may be coupled to the computing device 800 by wiredor wireless connections including RF, infrared, serial, parallel,Bluetooth, USB, or other suitable connections protocols using wirelessor physical connections. Similarly, the computing device 800 may alsoinclude output devices such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. Sincethese devices are well known in the art, they are not illustrated ordescribed further herein.

The foregoing description discusses preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, which may be changed or modified without departing from thescope of the present invention as defined in the claims. Examples listedin parentheses may be used in the alternative or in any practicalcombination. As used in the specification and claims, the words‘comprising’, ‘comprises’, ‘including’, ‘includes’, ‘having’, and ‘has’introduce an open ended statement of component structures and/orfunctions. In the specification and claims, the words ‘a’ and ‘an’ areused as indefinite articles meaning ‘one or more’. When a descriptivephrase includes a series of nouns and/or adjectives, each successiveword is intended to modify the entire combination of words preceding it.For example, a black dog house is intended to mean a house for a blackdog. While for the sake of clarity of description, several specificembodiments of the invention have been described, the scope of theinvention is intended to be measured by the claims as set forth below.In the claims, the term “provided” is used to definitively identify anobject that not a claimed element of the invention but an object thatperforms the function of a workpiece that cooperates with the claimedinvention. For example, in the claim “an apparatus for aiming a providedbarrel, the apparatus comprising: a housing, the barrel positioned inthe housing”, the barrel is not a claimed element of the apparatus, butan object that cooperates with the “housing” of the “apparatus” by beingpositioned in the “housing”. The invention includes any practicalcombination of the structures and methods disclosed. While for the sakeof clarity of description several specifics embodiments of the inventionhave been described, the scope of the invention is intended to bemeasured by the claims as set forth below.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for processing video data records, thesystem comprising: at least one video recording device; and an evidencemanagement system comprising at least one computing device, the evidencemanagement system configured to perform operations comprising: receivingmultiple video data records from the at least one video recordingdevice; storing the multiple video data records in a storage locationprotected from public access; processing the multiple video data recordsto determine one or more video data records of the multiple video datarecords to be redacted; creating one or more redacted video data recordsby applying a blur filter to obfuscate visual content of the one or morevideo data records of the multiple video data records; storing the oneor more redacted video data records in a staging location; and providingaccess to the one or more redacted video data records, whereinprocessing the multiple video data records includes determining whethereach respective video data record of the multiple video data records ismarked with one or more marks indicating portions of the respectivevideo data record that include sensitive information.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein processing the multiple video data records includesdetermining the one or more video data records based on a selection onan interface for each video data record of the one or more video datarecords, the interface used to request the multiple video data records.3. The system of claim 1, wherein the evidence management system isconfigured to receive a request for disclosure; and processing themultiple video data records includes determining that the one or morevideo data records match the request for disclosure.
 4. The system ofclaim 3, wherein each video data record of the one or more video datarecords is associated with an incident identifier specified in therequest for disclosure.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein creating theone or more redacted video data records includes applying the blurfilter to a video data record of the one or more video data records, andwherein applying the blur filter to the video data record of the one ormore video data records includes obfuscating an entirety of visualcontent of the video data record of the one or more video data records.6. A computer-implemented method for automatically redacting recordscaptured by recording devices during law enforcement activities, themethod performed by a computing device, the method comprising: receivinga request for disclosure; determining matching data records in a recorddata store that match the request for disclosure, the matching datarecords including at least a first data record and a second data record;redacting the matching data records to create redacted data records,wherein the redacting includes: applying a blur filter to a firstdigital video file included in the first data record, the blur filterobfuscating visual information in the first digital video file; andautomatically applying the blur filter to a second digital video fileincluded in the second data record, the blur filter obfuscating visualinformation in the second digital video file; storing the redacted datarecords in a staging location; and providing access to the redacted datarecords, wherein redacting the matching data records includes redactingthe matching data records automatically using one or more of a techniquefor finding faces to be redacted, a technique for finding license platesto be redacted, and a technique for finding text to be redacted.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein: receiving the request for disclosurecomprises receiving an incident identifier; and determining the matchingdata records that match the request for disclosure comprises determiningdata records in the record data store associated with the incidentidentifier.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein: applying the blur filterto the first digital video file included in the first data recordincludes determining that the first data record is marked; andautomatically applying the blur filter to the second digital video fileincluded in the second data record includes determining that the seconddata record is marked.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second datarecord is marked before the blur filter is applied to the first digitalvideo file.
 10. The method of claim 6, wherein: applying the blur filterto the first digital video file includes applying the blur filter to anentire visual field of the first digital video file; and automaticallyapplying the blur filter to the second digital video file includesapplying the blur filter to an entire visual field of the second digitalvideo file.
 11. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a webinterface, wherein the web interface includes: a list of the matchingdata records; and interface elements for submitting commands to redactdata records in the list of the matching data records.
 12. A computingdevice configured to automatically redact records captured by recordingdevices during law enforcement activities by: determining stored datarecords that match a disclosure request, the stored data recordsincluding a first data record and a second data record; processing thestored data records for redaction, the processing including: applying ablur filter to the first data record to create a first redacted datarecord, the first redacted data record including visible informationobfuscated by the application of the blur filter; storing the firstredacted data record in a staging location; automatically applying theblur filter to the second data record to create a second redacted datarecord, wherein the second data record is included in the stored datarecords determined to match the disclosure request prior to applicationof the blur filter to the first data record; and storing the secondredacted data record in the staging location with the first redacteddata record; and providing access to the first redacted data record andthe second redacted data record, wherein processing the stored datarecords for redaction includes redacting the stored data recordsautomatically using one or more of a technique for finding faces to beredacted, a technique for finding license plates to be redacted, and atechnique for finding text to be redacted.
 13. The computing device ofclaim 12, wherein determining the stored data records that match thedisclosure request includes: receiving one of an incident identifier, aspecified search parameter of a particular recording device, or aspecified search parameter of a particular user; determining the firstdata record is associated with the incident identifier, the particularrecording device, or the particular user; and determining the seconddata record is associated with the incident identifier, the particularrecording device, or the particular user.
 14. The computing device ofclaim 12, wherein the blur filter is applied to an entire visible areaof a video image of the first data record to create the first redacteddata record.
 15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein processingthe stored data records for redaction comprises: redacting the firstdata record in accordance with one or more first marks associated withthe first data record, the one or more first marks indicating one ormore first portions of the first data record that include firstsensitive information; and redacting the second data record inaccordance with one or more second marks associated with the second datarecord, the one or more second marks indicating one or more secondportions of the second data record that include second sensitiveinformation.
 16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the one ormore first marks are generated automatically by a recording device onwhich the first sensitive information is recorded.
 17. The computingdevice of claim 16, wherein the one or more first portions include aportion in a visual field of video data in the first data record inwhich the first sensitive information exists.
 18. The system of claim 1,wherein the operations further comprise providing an interfacecomprising a timeline that displays the one or more marks indicating theportions of a video data record of the multiple video data records thatinclude the sensitive information.
 19. The system of claim 1, whereinthe one or more redacted video data records include multiple redactedvideo data records, the multiple redacted video data records include aredacted video data record created by applying the blur filter to avideo data record of the multiple video data records, and the multipleredacted video data records include a next redacted video data recordcreated by automatically applying the blur filter to a next video datarecord of the multiple video data records.
 20. The method of claim 6,wherein: the matching data records comprise video data records recordedby wearable cameras; and redacting the matching data records includesredacting the matching data records automatically using the techniquefor finding faces to be redacted and the technique for finding licenseplates to be redacted.